Article Tools

While Santa Barbara promotes itself as a safe tourist destination, the “Secure Communities” Program implemented by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is rapidly attacking the reality of public safety for residents and visitors alike. As Chris Meagher points out in the April 28, 2011 Independent, instead of targeting “the worst of the hard-core criminals,” the ICE program encourages local police to round up jaywalkers, people texting in parked cars with keys in the ignition, drivers with a rosary hanging from a rear-view mirror, or a mother calling 911 to report a crime, non-crimes that account for 80 percent of detentions and referrals to ICE in the current incarnation of this program in Santa Barbara, according to ICE’s own statistics.

This both shocks and frightens me. A word of caution to tourists from Spain; Latin America; Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, our sister city; Alabama (the latter enjoying a suntan after lots of beach time); or Latino producers attending our Santa Barbara International Film Festival: Anyone who looks “Latino” or speaks Spanish in a public area (like me—I am of Italian and Polish heritage and am fluent in English, Spanish, Italian, and French) is at risk for being arrested for littering solely because s/he might be an undocumented worker ripe for ICE’s deportation mill.

Does this remind you of what happened in Maricopa County, Arizona, and, eventually, in the entire state because of their much-publicized law enlisting local police to profile Latinos? National and international public outcry was deafening, causing a boycott of the state by many groups who understood that when one group’s rights are violated, no one is safe.

Richard A. Oppel Jr. published an article entitled “Arizona, Bowing to Business, Softens Stand on Immigration” on March 18, 2011 in The New York Times, citing a State Chamber of Commerce estimate of lost tourism business ranging from $15 million to $150 million since its horrific profiling law was passed in April, 2010.

The lack of safety for all not only affects the economy of tourism. Its tentacles reach into all aspects of society. Local friends with Latino relatives living in Arizona tell me stories of previously productive Latino families languishing in detention camps awaiting deportation, while others, fearing deportation and its resulting separation from or economic hardship for their families, have fled the state, leaving in their wake abandoned homes, cars, and other possessions.

The social costs are staggering, with children the most frequent casualties of this attack on the immigrant community, when one or both parents suddenly disappear. Women also suffer, fearing to report domestic abuse or rape by a stranger lest they, or their spouse or partner, be deported for merely contacting the police. Others are reluctant to report crimes, since they might be arrested for merely speaking out for the public good.

The use of police to act as immigration investigators must certainly take away from other important duties. In addition, the fact that the referrals to ICE via fingerprints are made before a suspect is arraigned for and/or convicted of any crime sends chills down the spine of Lady Justice.

As Meagher points out at the end of the Independent article, groups who support the current law cite the need to eliminate the hard-core criminals to protect public safety. This, of course, is in everyone’s best interests, including those of law-abiding undocumented workers who are an integral part of California’s labor force.

While we await and work for long-overdue Federal Immigration Reform, residents of Santa Barbara County can take a step forward by urging the passage of California’s Trust Act. This act allows any jurisdiction to opt out of the Secure Communities program in its present form, Each local area will then have the opportunity to sift through transparent legislation to decide to work with this program. A “yes” answer then allows modification in its implementation so that the Secure Communities program can truly target hard-core criminals without destroying everyone’s public safety, human and civil rights, and social and economic stability in the process.

Barbara Lotito, Ph.D., is a core member of Despierta, bilingual theater group in Santa Barbara, and a member of the board of directors of PUEBLO. A pioneer in cross-cultural communication, diversity training, and the teaching of Spanish, she is also an SBCC Continuing Education instructor, and was a tenured professor at the University of Connecticut until 1990.

Comments

Does anyone really think that federal agents will be stopping Spanish-speaking tourists here?

PUEBLO would help themselves and their constituents more by not piling on, yet again, with the hyperbolic conflation like this, which makes all of their sometimes good work questionable. They were just recovering their image of credibility after the blunder a few months ago about the imagined profiling during drunk driver checkpoints.

John_Adams may be slave free and immigration status pure but yeah; what is the trigger for arrest anyway; edging a lawn, scooping poop out of horse stall, housekeeping in your office or hotel room. There are these crossovers who are born here, don't have documentation, don't know any other country and find work higher up the food chain. What else would you expect.

We are all adapting to corrupt moral and economic systems. It would be nice for America to reform, starting at the top rather than targeting those at the bottom. And there is no integrity targeting certain profiles when there are many varied of skin tones and accents around. Can't wait for Stevo1's selective posts.

Do Americans remember the promise of Teddy Kennedy regarding the 1986 amnesty bill?

No other personage in American politics carries as much accountability as this Democrat/Liberal Ted Kennedy for the contemporary wretched state of U.S. immigration chaos. In his words:

"This amnesty will give citizenship to only 1.3 million illegal aliens. We will secure the borders henceforth. We will never again bring forth an amnesty bill like this."

Over five million foreign nationals suddenly materialized demanding—Mass AMNESTY. This was the first lie to the American people on immigration, as lie upon lie ever since has been piled on top of this original lie that relating to amnesty, border fences and interior enforcement. Our country has been slowly turned into a third world toilet, brought upon us by this original lie Kennedy response to his critics on enactment of the 1965 immigration bill, "The charges I have mentioned are highly emotional, irrational and with little foundation in fact. They are out of line with the obligations of responsible citizenship. They breed hate of our heritage. ..." Kennedy promised, "The bill will not flood our cities with immigrants. It will not upset the ethnic mix of our society. It will not relax the standards of admission. It will not cause American workers to lose their jobs." However Ted Kennedy's immigration policies have ejected hundreds of thousands of Americans out of the middle class as their occupations have been crippled by wages declining because of the deluge with Kennedy's preferential treatment to foreign national’s workers, streaming into every niche of our society and because they have directly lost their jobs to illegal border and overseas competitors.

Well, the sick joke is on us.

In the years previous to 1965 United States was well serviced by the immigration laws of 1924 which had shaped an unwavering middle class social order. Then along came the Democratic social manipulators as Senator Kennedy of Massachusetts who ideology entirely wrecked American populace with "Hart-Seller" Act of 1965. The Hart-Cellar Act abolished the national origins quota system that had controlled US immigration policy since the 1920s, replacing it with a preference system that focused on immigrants' skills and family relationships with citizens or residents in this nation. It was tantamount to opening the floodgates to unskilled labor from Mexico, Central and South America; its inception was a policy of wide open borders that has attracted to this country a wide variety of criminals, which includes drug cartels and their human transporters. A day doesn’t go by without a television channel reporting another pedestrian killed by an illegal alien drunk while driving. Our courts a crammed solid with cases of criminal aliens killing, or the latest innovations of home invasions, kidnappings and Americans becoming the pray of heinous crimes committed by foreign nationals.

In 1965, the American people were guaranteed that immigration would never exceed its then low level of 250,000 annually. Currently, it is at an all-time high of over a million a year and still rising. Six stealth amnesties have been overlooked by the public, with intentional results, such as larger numbers of unemployment of legitimate workers, being replaced by unscrupulous business owners whose only concern is higher profits. Because of importunate congressional mismanagement immigrants and their descendants will fuel a massive increase in the population of the United States for the foreseeable future, creating irreversible overpopulation growth, with large monetary rewards for criminal companies. American workers must exact a criminal penalty on these companies; not the lower management, but the penthouse people, who must see the inside of a jail cell. If illegal Immigration continues unabated, without relating to the change in American labor markets, conditions in the inner cities, or the mounting expenses to state and local taxpayers will be inexcusable Ted Kennedy's function in creating this situation has been enormous to US taxpayers and the State of our communities. Neighborhoods are crammed with the impoverished of foreign lands, confusing our own language, bringing dangerous religions and tearing the fabric of the real American culture apart.

Another program enacted at the order of the late Senator Kennedy was a Seasonal Agricultural Worker (SAW) amnesty. This was another option to the temporary-worker program SAW, promoted by California Growers. The SAW amnesty was projected by a New York newspaper to have fraud rates as high as 70 per cent, and the number of people who took advantage of the amnesty was estimated to be at least three times the number that was qualified given the size of America's agricultural labor force. All they needed to be eligible for the amnesty was a document saying they had worked for the specified number of days in harvesting crops, and those documents were simple to forge. An (INS) Immigration and Naturalization (prior to a merger and becoming (ICE) Immigration and Customs service) study found that after ten years in the United States, the average amnestied illegal alien had only a seventh grade education and an annual salary of less than $9,000 a year. Unlike immigrants who are sponsored and guaranteed they will not become a burden on the welfare state. When Washington enacts an amnesty, it makes the American public monetarily obligated for those amnestied. So According to a report from the (CIS) Center for Immigration Studies, the entire net cost of the 1986 IRCA amnesty (the direct and indirect costs of services and benefits to the ex-illegal aliens, minus their tax contributions) after ten years comes to over $78 billion.

HAVE YOU ANY IDEA THE COST TODAY, IF PRESIDENT OBAMA FORCES THROUGH ANOTHER MASS AMNESTY?

You do not have to calculate to hard that current and previous governments, have been stealing hundreds of billions of dollars each year, to support this illegal immigrant occupation in education and health care and other financial programs. While $40 billion dollars a year of these illegal immigrant hires are transferred out the country to foreign banks.

Prior to Kennedy’s 1986 bill, L.B. Johnson had signed his own immigration policy into law, with most immigrants to the United States coming from Europe; 70 percent coming from the United Kingdom, Ireland and Germany. European immigrants easily assimilated, as they were culturally and economically analogous to America's population. Immigrants were educated with higher skill rates. Nowadays poorly educated, non-skilled illegal migrants and immigrants arrive and are supported by taxpayer-funded entitlements and social services, ensuing in increased use of emergency rooms, increased welfare rolls, increased registration in free public schools for their children and increased cost of law enforcement and unparalleled increase in prison occupancy. As most illegal aliens are hired on a under-the-table cash payment, so they avoid taxes and therefore middle-class taxpayers pay even more to cover the increased use of public services. As taxes increase and wages decline, America's working middle class is being exploited by the IRS.

Ted Kennedy who is not here today lied and is joined by others, that includes The White House, and other open borders pushers. What really is amnesty is called “comprehensive immigration reform” and treasonous. It is unmerited support for illegal aliens, open borders policy, and free citizenship (small fine) to millions who have no allegiance to sovereign country and to our civilization. The 1986 bill has overall been a washout and mockery, because the downright intention not fulfills the requirements of big business intervention. If you as a patriotic Americans want to stop the President Obama and his minions in both parties, passing another volatile Amnesty? Then you must join tens of millions of honest legal birthright citizens, naturalized citizens and legal residents in the TEA PARTY. The call is already going out across the world, which they can procure an AMNESTY and take advantage of the US welfare and social service system. ONLY AMERICANS CAN STOP THE OBAMA GOVERNMENT , BY BOMBARDING YOUR STATE AND FEDERAL REPRESENTATIVES TO HALT IT. INFORMATION. From Outside Dial:Senate—202-224–3121/House—202-225–3121

billclausen; Stevo1=commenter posted to Chris Meagher's article and is referenced in this Voices Barbara Lolito's first paragraph. Click on the dark blue hyperlink entitled "Chris Meagher points out" and scroll down to the Comments section. I think you posted there as well, amigo.

When was the last time ICE rolled through town stopping people on the street? And when has the SB City or County authorities actually arrested and booked into county someone for minor infractions, and then due to their documentation status turned them over to ICE?

I think the tourists can breathe easy, of course if Pueblo has its say so they could be hit by a unlicensed, uninsured driver who gets to keep his car and thats far more likely than ICE stopping them on the wharf..

Pointssouth,You are the perfect example to illustrate that ignorance is bliss. You probably don't see ICE rolling in our town because you are oblivious to it. Meaning, you don't have to spot them before they spot you. I assume that you don't live in a neighborhood that's targeted by ICE, and I also assume that you don't look very Latino, probably because you're not.

See all the assumptions that I made? Some might be right, and others not. I made them just to prove the point that both your assumptions and mine, are just darts that we throw in the air to fall where they may. Get it?

Of course law enforcement takes people to jail for minor infractions, they book them, and it is free for all after that. ICE is in our jail, and once their fingerprints are in the system, they can, and do put a hold on them to start the deportation process. That's why some states in the country are fighting to opt-out of "Secure Communities", because this program, in fact, makes communities very insecure for many. This happens very frequently here in Santa Barbara County, and elsewhere.

And, once again, your ignorance shows when you talk about the fact that tourists can breath easy. You see, there's a lot of tourists that are not white, nor wealthy; that are Latinos and fit the stereotype that you and ICE have about Latinos, and whether or not ICE is at the wharf, they cannot breath easy simply because their safety is not guaranteed. Or have you not heard either about the many painful cases in which ICE makes an arrest just based on the looks of a person, and THEN finds out that the person is in fact a citizen?

No need to thank me for the information that I just gave you. I'm a Latino, and it is a part of our culture to help others in whichever way we can.

I knew a guy from Mexico who was known as "Saddam" because he looked just like Saddam Hussain. In mentioning it once to him he told us that he actually was detained because they thought he was from the Middle East. Given what I knew of him, I have no reason to believe that he was making this up.

A thorny issue, this one. I know a guy who says he was hit by unlicensed, uninsured undocumented drivers not once, not twice, but three times.

I know a real sweet lady who snuck in fifteen years ago so her kid could get some help. He and his sister grew up in USA, bilingual. Now, graduating, can't get work. The whole crew is going back south to the home country. Tells me she can't wait and she likes the old country better anyway.

Can't help but wonder how the kids really feel, though. Doesn't seem fair.

Belan was charismatic but lacked leadership skills. She never became a lobbyist. She would show up at the last minute when an issue was totally out of control and make kind of a desperate last minute pitch...

As far as I am concerned, PUEBLO should hire Shawn Talent back, make him the Executive Director, if they need to triple his salary, do so. He is the ONLY person in this town who has ever shown the leadership ability that would be required to make progress on this issue.

One thing we do know is this: if a kid is born in the USA, they are citizens. You can't retroactively dock them for citizenship for their parent's conduct. That diminishes citizenship, which is a bad idea. I did not support the Dutch government's prosecution of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, for similar reasons. Even if someone lies, cheats or steals to become a citizen, IMO once they are citizens, that's irrevocable.

I admire anyone who practices good citizenship, whether or not they were born to it. But no one is a superior citizen because they "earned it" by passing a citizenship test, and no one is a slacker because "all they did was get born into citizenship". What that view overlooks is that citizenship is more a challenge, a test, a duty and a responsibility than a right, a privilege, or an entitlement.

Lots of people just don't get that. Ask any combat veteran, though. They get it. Even the ones that still just got green cards.

So we should pat these illegals and the back and say congrats you can swim run and jump. My Hispanic girlfriend or her mother, brother, sister or dad has ever been stopped by ICE. They were all born here in the usa. The police have to have a reason or i believe they call it Probable Cause but what would i know my name doesnt have Justice 101 in it. I bet all the transients next the sewage plant are all legal, why are they not harassed. Why not go through the process to become a true citizen?

IF Secure communities makes it insecure for all people that are in this country illegally, than I'm all for it. Race has nothing to do with it, despite your insistence on playing that card. An illegal immigrant from Russia should be treated exactly the same as an illegal immigrant from any other country. If the USA wants to give me a national identity card and force me to carry it wherever I go, than that's fine with me too.

How can illegal aliens, the legal term, be IMPROPERLY referred to ICE if they are here illegally by designation and statute? Same old politically driven drivel with emotionally charged language.No wonder that only progressive wingnuts in this town still take PUEBLO seriously. Of course all of us have seen the hordes of brown tourists being bussed out of town under the armed surveillance of ICE Gestapo Troups...